Author and activist Joel Harper’s animated video is based on his popular children’s book, All the Way to the Ocean. The book and video, which is available for download, tell the story of two skateboarding boys, Isaac and James, who journey from the city to the coast to learn how throwing trash down urban storm drains harms the ocean and wildlife. Encountering a talking crane, a surfer, and other characters, the boys are inspired to take action at their school to stop ocean pollution.
Marcia Cross volunteered to narrate the story after Harper ran into her in a Los Angeles bookstore. The 14-minute video, which also stars Amy Smart and Xavier Rudd, features the music of Harper’s brother, Ben Harper, as well as songs from Jack Johnson and Burning Spear. Surf champions Kelly Slater and Laird Hamilton have promoted the book and video to their social media followers, and a percentage of sales of the animated short will benefit Sustainable Surf, a nonprofit focused on ocean issues. We talked to Harper, who lives in Southern California, about the challenges of publishing a book about storm drain pollution and turning it into a movie.
TakePart: How did you become an ocean activist?
Joel Harper: My grandmother played a major role in taking care of us growing up, and we spent many weekends at Laguna Beach and Catalina Island around the ocean. When I was 21, I spent a semester abroad in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, worked with abandoned children, teaching English. As I waited for my bus every day, I was hit by the stench of the storm drains and the amount of litter and detritus around these drains. It bummed me out. I’d pick up the trash along my walks in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
I came home to Claremont after my trip, and they had just started to stencil those bright blue “No dumping / This drains to ocean” signs. I’d ride my bike and walk around town and think, “What a cool symbol.” Then I would notice all the trash in the drains. We’re here in Claremont where we have the infrastructure and trash receptacles on all the street corners, so how can we have all this trash in the storm drains? On my bike rides, I’d start bringing trash bags with me, and if I saw something about to go down the drain, I’d pick it up. Eventually, I wrote the story that became All the Way to the Ocean. That was in 1998.
TakePart: How hard was it to get a children’s book on storm drains published?
Harper: Storm drain pollution was not exactly front-page news back then. I met with big publishing houses, to no avail. They wanted to dumb down the book. They thought it was too depressing for kids. They also wanted to print the book in China and wouldn’t commit to printing in the U.S., and they wouldn’t commit to using recycled paper. I thought, “I’m just going to do this myself.” So I started my own independent publishing company, Freedom Three Publishing.
To read the full story, visit http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/06/08/new-video-aims-educate-new-generation-ocean-activists.